Finding Dorothy: A Novel

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Nonfiction offered Letts much satisfaction—but fiction, she says, opened a whole new door. “I took a lot of inspiration from Frank Baum when I was writing Finding Dorothy,” she says. “He believed that there was only a flimsy veil between other worlds and our own. Fiction allows me to push aside that veil. Rather than merely telling readers about my characters, I can step into an imaginary world and inhabit it right beside them.” Maud and Frank started their marriage living in Dakota starting various start up businesses that never seemed to take off. One, a fantastical sounding children’s toy store, was said to contain just about any toy that a child could wish for. The store did well for some time but when the town fell on hard times Frank was forced to sell the store

Plunkett, John (18 February 2010). "We didn't drop Denise Van Outen because of pregnancy, says BBC". guardian.co.uk. Guardian Media Group . Retrieved 27 February 2010. Readers looking for an inspiring true story will be delighted. . . . [Letts] again crafts a tale of fortitude and triumph over adversity. . . . Fans of the Oz novels or film will be enchanted. This is a great fit for readers of Christina Baker Kline and Lisa Wingate, and will surely be a popular choice for book clubs. . . . [A] well-researched novelization.” Former eight contestants: " Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down"with Olly Murs And Boy George ( Alicia Keys) anything else Maud could have done to help Judy? Considering the #MeToo movement, has the situation improved for young women? As with all great historical fiction, the allure of Finding Dorothy is the curiosity it inspires. Readers will find themselves wanting to know more, wondering what is fact and what is Letts's imagination. In this case, Letts has brought an unknown woman to life in an engaging and thorough novel. The New York Times Book Review - Susan Ellingwood

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Fletcher, Alex (18 February 2010). "BBC reveal Over The Rainbow judges". Digital Spy . Retrieved 27 February 2010. The BBC announced the commission of the series in September 2009 with the title The Wizard of Oz; it would search for a performer, cast by the public, to play Dorothy and a dog to play Toto. Following the announcement, Lloyd Webber told The Daily Telegraph: Historical fiction fans will rejoice. With meticulous research and vivid detail, Elizabeth Letts explores both Maud’s life story leading up to the writing of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and her determination to see that the film remained true to her husband’s vision as it was made in 1930’s Hollywood. Letts takes readers on an unflinching journey between hardship and hope, with a catch-your-breath ending.” —Pam Jenoff, author of The Orphan’s Tale

It is worth noting that FINDING DOROTHY is definitely a work of fiction. Maud did meet Judy, but it is unlikely that she had such a strong role in the girl’s life. And while an early scene has her saving the song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from being cut, that seems implausible. What is true, though, is Frank’s dedication to women’s rights, something that will likely please modern readers. In fact, upon reflection, I can now see that Dorothy herself was a much more strong-willed, feminist character than I ever realized when watching the movie or reading the books as a child. Though his views were no doubt bolstered by his wife and her suffragette mother, Letts also shows us the ways that Frank himself championed women’s rights and how his work informed his writing. We all need a bit of magic from time to time,” Maud Gage Baum says to the young Judy Garland in Elizabeth Letts’s new novel, Finding Dorothy (Ballantine, Feb.). Maud—the widow of Wizard of Oz creator L. Frank Baum and the indefatigable central character of Letts’s story—is a woman profoundly familiar with both the importance of magic and the endless challenges of creating it. Warm, articulate, and fiercely intelligent, Letts feels as vibrantly present as if she were sitting across the table, though our conversation is being conducted remotely—Letts in her California home, me in North Carolina. The best historical novels are a type of time travel in which the author takes readers on an entertaining journey into the past, introducing them to real people whom they might otherwise never meet, and subtly educating them about bygone events and mores which impact the present. Elizabeth Letts’ new novel, Finding Dorothy, is a dramatic and heartwarming adventure which takes readers to two past eras: 1939 Hollywood, where The Wizard of Oz is being filmed, and to the late 19th century and the life of Maud Gage Baum.

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It was a city within a city, a textile mill to weave the gossamer of fantasy on looping looms of celluloid. From the flashing needles of the tailors in the costume shop to the zoo where the animals were trained, from the matzo ball soup in the commissary to the blinding-­white offices in the brand-­new Thalberg executive building, an army of people—composers and musicians, technicians and tinsmiths, directors and actors—spun thread into gold. Once upon a time, dreams were made by hand, but now they were mass-­produced. These forty-­four acres were their assembly line. When Maud hears fifteen year old Judy Garland, who plays “Dorothy”, singing an early version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, she is impressed. With her remarkable voice, Judy captures how it feels to be a young girl longing to grow up and fly away. When she was young, Maud wanted the same thing.

Letts ( The Perfect Horse, 2016, etc.) builds her historical novel around Maud Gage Baum, the high-spirited wife of L. Frank Baum, who wrote the original Wizard of Oz books. In one of two intercut narratives, the 77-year-old Maud, who'd exerted a strong influence on her late husband, appears on the set of the movie in 1938; there, she encounters 16-year-old Judy Garland—cast as Dorothy—among others. The second narrative opens in Fayetteville, New York, in 1871 and traces Maud's life from age 10: her girlhood as the daughter of an ardent suffragette; her brief time at Cornell University—she was one of the first women admitted there; her early marriage to Baum, an actor at the time; and the births of their four sons. Frank, a dreamer, was not so talented at making money, and the family endured a hardscrabble, peripatetic life until he scored as a writer. This part of the story is dramatic and sometimes-poignant, though it goes on a bit. (Read carefully, and you can spot some elements that made their ways into the books and movie.) The Hollywood part is more entertaining even if some of it feels implausible. Maud did meet Judy Garland and attend the premiere of the film in real life. But in the book she tries to protect and nurture Garland, who was at the mercy of her abusive stage mother and the filmmakers and was apparently fed amphetamines to keep her weight down. And while it's true the movie's best-loved song, "Somewhere over the Rainbow," was almost cut at the last minute, the book has Maud persuading studio chief L.B. Mayer to keep it in.

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At last it was Maud’s turn. As the guard scribbled her a pass, her stomach fluttered. Inside her purse, she had the small cutout torn from Variety. She didn’t need to look at it; she had long since memorized its few words:“oz” sold to louis b. mayer at m-­g-­m. As the last living link to the inspiration behind the story, she was determined to offer her services as a consultant. But getting access to the studio had not been easy. For months, they had rebuffed her calls, only reluctantly setting up a meeting with the studio head, Louis B. Mayer, because the receptionist was no doubt fed up with answering her daily queries. Today she would make her case. Following a public telephone vote, 18-year-old Danielle Hope was crowned the winner of the series and was chosen to play Dorothy. Miniature Schnauzer Dangerous Dave was chosen to play Toto. I always enjoy knowing the seed for a story, what prompted the author to write a particular story. Loved reading in the afterward, how seeing the movie for the first time at 4 years old ignited her love and connection to Dorothy and then reading it to her son made her wonder about Baum. Seeing a photograph of Maud Baum and Judy Garland taken in 1939 is when she says “I realized I had found a story.” This appears to be very well researched, and while Letts says she altered some dates and names, she says “most of my story is based on known historical fact”, consulting “biographies and diaries, letters and photographs.” Recommended to others who loved the book or movie as I still do. The girl raised a stylishly penciled eyebrow and gave Maud the once-­over, from her gray curls down to her sturdy brown pumps. Maud sat, feet crossed at the ankle, handbag and a well-­worn copy of Oz balanced on her lap, hoping to convey that she wasn’t planning on going anywhere.